Benefits to consensus decision making

Quick facts

Consensus decision-making is a process that builds trust and creates ownership and commitment. An effective consensus process (consensus-building) is inclusive and engages all participants. Consensus decisions can lead to better quality outcomes that empower the group or community to move forward to create their future together.

How can you benefit from consensus decision-making?

Tip: Involve others and increase commitment

If groups want high-quality decisions with strong support for follow through, and they are willing to invest time to create a proposal or plan, they will benefit from consensus decision-making. Involving all group members in the discussion of issues and making decisions together is a powerful process.

Consensus decision-making has a rich history dating back to early Native American societies, as well as the Quaker tradition. The consensus process has also been used within political movements, nonprofit organizations, intentional communities, and worker cooperatives. Recently, consensus decision-making is being embraced by government entities and corporations, such as Mitsubishi, Levi Strauss & Co., and Starbucks.

Work teams become more engaged and committed to implementation when they have the opportunity to create their own goals, projects, or action plans. Creating consensus generally requires a common purpose, an understanding of consensus and a skilled facilitator.

In this tip sheet, we answer the questions:

What is consensus decision-making?

What are its benefits?

Definition of consensus decision-making

Consensus is a cooperative process in which all group members develop and agree to support a decision in the best interest of the whole. In consensus, the input of every participant is carefully considered and there is a good faith effort to address all legitimate concerns. (Dressler, 2006)

Arietta and Wallace (2000) define consensus as "a journey and a destination." As a process, consensus is the means by which groups can productively resolve issues, make choices or develop strategies. As a product, consensus represents a resolution—a decision that satisfies all participants.

Consensus as a process

Often referred to as "consensus building," the process is a journey of preparing participants to make a decision. Discussion is needed to identify issues, clarify questions, establish decision-making criteria and address all concerns.

The goal is to create an understanding of the issues and then share the perspectives of all involved. Using a trained facilitator to plan the process and lead conversations to get to a decision is important.

Facilitators employ a number of strategies within the consensus process:

Gaining buy-in from all members about the purpose or goal of the session

Ensuring that every idea is acknowledged in writing and honored

Linking thoughts together so that people can formulate a common idea

Creating areas of shared understanding

Naming categories of related ideas

Consensus as a product

Consensus is the outcome of a consensus-building process. After listening to all perspectives, participants develop a proposal that honors the wisdom of the group. When people think and talk together, they can find a solution or proposal to move forward as a group.

A consensus decision does not mean that everyone agrees on all the details or that some have changed their ideas or perspectives. Ideally, a consensus decision reflects mutual understanding, agreement to support a decision and commitment to take action steps for the benefit of the group.